


the thread from mine to yours

by annperkinsface



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-10-26 03:51:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17738483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/annperkinsface/pseuds/annperkinsface
Summary: "So all you are is darkness, huh?" Roxas says. "Kind of dramatic, don't you think?"Vanitas sneers. "You're one to talk, Nobody."





	the thread from mine to yours

When Roxas opens his eyes there is light. Whiteness as far as the eye can see. He  _is_  light, having materialized here, following his connection to Sora, pulled taut like a string. In the distance, a flash of color, and as Roxas peers closer he can make out the shape as a dark figure. A back, belonging to a boy, and Roxas frowns. Something about the terse line of his spine resonates and he suddenly knows, with clarity no less strange for how crystal it is, where he is and why.

"Giving up?" Roxas asks, approaching soundlessly. The back stiffens, his question echoing across time and space. The boy's head turns. Somewhere Sora is looking at Roxas, surprise bright in his face, and here, now, on a near identical face, the boy's eyes are blown wide in shock, confusion.

It's like this: Things don't disappear from this world, not entirely. In the space between life and death they touch, overlap. Time, space—it is all happening, all around us. Roxas is here, following his connections back to the living, and he is there, having already found his way back. He thinks he should be more confused but in this strange negative space he is calm, serene. Filled with purpose.

The flicker of surprise fades and the boy's face twists. Vanitas, Roxas knows without being told. He knows that here the way he wouldn't know it anywhere else. "Great," Vanitas says, a rasp Roxas has never heard in Sora's voice, sharper than any knife. "The imposter is here to lecture me too. Don't you have somewhere to be?"

Roxas shrugs, a smile curling his lips. Says, "I have some time to kill," and makes to sit, keeping a small measure of distance from Vanitas, who eyes him with undisguised contempt. He looks back, taking Vanitas in: battered, alone. Heart and helmet in pieces. Roxas doesn't know him, not really, but he finds that he doesn't have to. There's something familiar in Vanitas' face and it's not the slopes and creases that resemble Sora. He recognizes the pain there, the despair that no amount of pride and bluster can hide. 

"So all you are is darkness, huh?" Roxas says. "Kind of dramatic, don't you think?"

Vanitas sneers. "You're one to talk, Nobody."

Roxas shakes his head, mildly amused. He's heard way worse from Diz. "That may have been what I was born as," he says, "but that's not all I am. Darkness isn't all you are either."

Vanitas lunges forward, snatching him by his coat. He shakes Roxas, eyes wild, face contorted in a snarl. "Shut up!" Vanitas spits, black tipped fingers digging like claws into his shoulders, but Roxas remains passive in his grip, eyes sharp with wariness all the while. "I am so sick of you Lights acting like you know what you are talking about. You don't understand a damn thing. Stop pretending you do!"

“I understand better than you think," Roxas says because he does. He looks at Vanitas, all anger and anguish, and remembers those fateful last days, throat swelling with longing, wondering if there was any place he belonged. Remembers fading away because everyone told him he had no right to exist, remembers meeting Sora in a dream, how he looked in it—kind but sad—remembers _Roxas, you're you_ and how the scar fissure of the heart Roxas really had all along had scabbed over. Remembers, remembers, remembers. He looks at Vanitas and can't stop remembering.

"You? Don't make me laugh," Vanitas says darkly. "I'm just a pit stop on the way to your happy ending."

For the first time since entering this strange place Roxas feels a flicker of that old anger, disrupting the unnatural placidity. He reaches up, wrenches away Vanitas' fingers, shoves him hard enough to sprawl. Watches with satisfaction when Vanitas catches himself with one hand, looking shocked then furious. Vanitas bares his teeth. Roxas bares his teeth back.

"You know what I think?" Roxas asks, cold fury in his voice, face. "I think you say all you are is darkness because it's easier to believe the lies Xehanort's told you than to believe you can be anything else. But you are. You know it and I know it. Admit it, Vanitas. You're scared."

Vanitas swings at him wildly, all raw, uncoordinated fury, and they tussle, kicking and scratching and punching. Roxas grunts when Vanitas gets him in the ribs. He aims square for Vanitas' face, lands a hit on his nose, and straddles Vanitas when he keels over. Roxas pins his hands, panting harshly, and Vanitas stares up at him like he is seeing Roxas for the first time, blood dripping down his face.

"I didn't think it was possible," Vanitas says, trying for a wobbly smirk, something vulnerable in his eyes, "but you might be more annoying than Ventus."

Roxas doesn't laugh, not softening his grip on Vanitas' wrists. He can feel his pulse thundering there. Roxas harshly says, "Listen," and Vanitas miraculously does, mouth pressed into a sharp, wavering line. "We didn't choose to exist or what we existed as. We didn't choose to be used or lied to. But what we can choose is who we are. Who we become. Xehanort told you all you can be is darkness. Xemnas told me we didn't have hearts. I don't know who or what you are going to be but you can choose it. I know you can."

Roxas holds him there for a few more seconds and then releases him. He stands, watching Vanitas lie shock still, his face flickering through too many emotions to parse. He holds out a hand. Smiles. Thinks of Sora. Of Axel, Xion. Of all the hearts and connections around us if you'd only take the time to look.

"There's a place I have to be," Roxas says, his voice overlaid with an echo from another him, another time:  _There's a place I'd like to be._ Roxas was there and now he was following that connection, that red string back. He doesn't see why Vanitas can't come along for the ride. "You coming?"

With those words Vanitas' face cracks open, his whole heart laid bare. Hope rises to the surface in all its glory: painful, mystifying. Roxas keeps his hand and heart outstretched, silently willing Vanitas to take it, and when Vanitas leans up on his elbows, slowly rising to his knees, he thinks with a swell of triumph: _That's it._ Thinks: _Don't you see? We are more than what they made us believe._

On his feet at last, Vanitas' eyes flicker between Roxas' hand and his face. He scowls, catching Roxas out. "Don't look so smug," he snaps, making Roxas grin.

He doesn't knock his hand away.

**Author's Note:**

> writing rust is real but since I beat the game I am back on my metaphysical kingdom hearts bullshit. i am who I am, what can I say.
> 
> i am still bummed they never got to interact : (


End file.
